With the advent of the tubeless tire came the problem of quickly mounting them on a wheel rim so they could be properly inflated to carry out their normal function. The problem exists primarily because the sidewalls of the tire when installed on the rim are semicollapsed and therefore do not form an air tight chamber with the rim for normal inflation.
Various types of devices evolved to combat this problem. A band encircling the tread whereby the sidewalls were bulged out to meet the rim, though inexpensive, was not entirely satisfactory. Later made devices comprising annular tubes or circular arcs with multi-orifices were placed on the tire between the tire and rim and supplied with high pressure air to force the tire wall out so the bead would engage the rim. These also had their shortcomings in that they were not entirely versatile especially those that were in combination with a conventional tire changing machine or those which were limited to only a few sizes of tires. One further method of bead seating for tractor tires in use today, though not recommended, is to spray ether in the collapsed tire on the rim and light it. The ignition of the vapour forces the sidewalls with attached bead to engage and seat on the mounting rim of the wheel.
A search of the prior art has revealed several patents of various types, the most closely related being U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,677,320, 3,814,163 and 3,866,654. Reviewing U.S. Pat. No. 3,677,320 it will be seen that it is designed for use with a large tractor tire and is comprised mainly of an annular tube with orifices held in operative position by a large stand. Applicants portable device with compressed air tank, ball valve and adjustable saddles releasably mounts on large tractor rims, combine rims or small car rims in the vertical or horizontal position. A review of U.S. Pat. No. 3,814,163 reveals a pair of oppositely disposed segments with orifice means interconnected by a telescoping tubular structure for different tire sizes. While this device will handle tires with some variation in size it is obvious that tires smaller or larger to any significant degree than those with the arc radius of the segment will not be properly supplied with air as readily seen by a comparison with U.S. Pat. No. 3,677,320. Applicants device does not have this problem since the compressed air supply with ball valve, and adjustable saddles with nozzles provides adequate high pressure air for the larger tractor tires as well as the small car tires. A review of U.S. Pat. No. 3,866,654 leaves some doubt as to its effectiveness if only one nozzle were to be used. The use of such a device with no support for three or four nozzles is only conjecture and the resistance to air flow seen by the torturous path would be totally unacceptable in very large tires. Applicants low resistance high speed air flow using an attached compressed air tank, ball valve release, accurate nozzle flow and adjustable saddle support present a far superior, efficient device.